The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[MumsyII]

Some where back in the mists of missed posts a question was asked about when we might t integrate chicks with the adult flock at free ranging? or something like that? I don't integrate chicks under seven weeks into the adult flock in the coop. I have a grow out pen of eight week old that free ranges with the adult flock but they keep apart.

I've recently started doing it totally different with the week old to two week old.. I have two chick houses in use now. I can put broody's with chicks in them or remove broody's and raise chicks separate from the adults. This has worked well this year at letting chicks gain a better immunity.

Recently as an experiment, I took hens from chicks at four weeks old and let them free range alone. The hens were put in pens for a rest and to get back into laying sooner. The chicks stayed put but were let out every day. I use no heat source and kept the routine the same. Food and water inside the chick house. Chicks let out every morning all day and in at dusk.

They did awesome! They keep to a tight knit pack and are very savvy about foraging and hiding. The adult flock ignores them for the most part and the chicks do their own thing. The chick houses have pop doors that I prop open with just enough room for the chick flocks to scoot under to eat and drink and layers can't follow.

Next, I put week old and two week old chicks out into the chick house and turned the heat source off during the day and on during the night for two days and nights. Now it is off 24/7. They are doing great and there is no distress chirping at all. Days are 78 degrees. Nights are 60. At four weeks they will be turned out all day too. So. Easy. These are all Silkies. My adult free ranging flock are HRIR and mixed LF layers. They just tolerate the chicks free ranging but there is lots of room for everyone to stay out of everyone's way. All adult silkies are in trio pens at this time.

One HRIR cock feeds the chicks of all ages and is very protective. I often find four or five silkie chicks hanging out with him. The other will kill them if he gets a chance. I do not let that boy free range. He is my back up cock if I lose the #1 boy. If any hen injures a chick, that hen is gone. Done. My home and barnyard is a peaceable kingdom. No killers allowed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Mumsy: Thanks for sharing an awesome bit of experience. You've given excellent details, especially regarding temps and ages. It just goes to show, that there's no one right way to do things, and it's always possible to improve on an existing set up. If raising chicks can be this easy, I'm sure more folks would be doing it! Looking forward to the next time I raise chicks. (Insert husband rolling eyes here!)

 

[MumsyII]

Mumsy: Thanks for sharing an awesome bit of experience. You've given excellent details, especially regarding temps and ages. It just goes to show, that there's no one right way to do things, and it's always possible to improve on an existing set up. If raising chicks can be this easy, I'm sure more folks would be doing it! Looking forward to the next time I raise chicks. (Insert husband rolling eyes here!)

You are welcome. This thread has changed many of my old way of doing things. Sometimes you read something on here and it just *clicks* and you think "That could work for me." And then when you just do it and it not only works but makes life easier for the you AND the flock? Well...Never to old to learn new things.

I just came in from checking the one week and two week old chicks. It was 55 degrees so I turned on the heat for them. They weren't in distress but were huddling. When the sun warms up the roof of the chick house in an hour, I'll turn it off again.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Welcome back Mumsy. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I think of you often as my garden grows this year. How are the HRIRs doing this year that you hatched last year?

 

[SallyinIndiana]

yes, how did your HRIR handle the cold? my adults were ok but not happy with it. The juvies were dead set against winter in March.

 

[MumsyII]

I live in a temperate area in the Puget Sound. We haven't had snow for two years now. We get some cold weeks in January and February but nothing horrible. I had only four adults and five juvie HRIR to winter over with my mixed layers. They were all fine as can be. The coyote killed half my juvies along with half my white silkie flock in Spring. That was the biggest set back I have had in some decades. Rebuilding my silkies now and my layer flock along with HRIR are giving us more eggs than we can eat or give away. (I'm not interested in selling any)

The plan has been revised for my flock. I am working hard to have no more than ten birds per breed and or variety. Only keep the best from the best and breed best to the best. My flock is still closed. No new birds come in.

The HRIR are stunning to look at. Such beautiful birds and easy keepers.

The silkies are starting over from scratch using what has survived and culling heavily for type. The whites look *meh* but the projects pens are beautiful. F1 started in three pens. Paint, Porcelain, and Blue Partridge. The whites will be kept to ten birds but they really need work.

I'm not gardening this year. My husband and my health have made that difficult. Maybe next year.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@MumsyII

Thank you for the integration information. Very encouraging and helpful.

You said that you remove any mean hens from the flock that are aggressive toward the babies. Have you had to do that many times?

Also -
Good to hear from you and the updates. Sorry to hear that you and hubby are still "under the weather" but hoping things are looking up!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

@MumsyII Sorry to hear about the health issues. I know how much you liked the gardening.
I'm in flock reduction mode over here. But that is part of what I do. I sell started pullets as a way to offset the cost of feed and construction of breeding pens. I'm really really thinking hard about having a closed flock starting now. The downfall is how it limits my started pullets to 4 pure breeds and any number of mutts. But the health benefits to the chickens are really really pulling me towards the closed flock.

 

[MumsyII]

@MumsyII Sorry to hear about the health issues. I know how much you liked the gardening.
I'm in flock reduction mode over here. But that is part of what I do. I sell started pullets as a way to offset the cost of feed and construction of breeding pens. I'm really really thinking hard about having a closed flock starting now. The downfall is how it limits my started pullets to 4 pure breeds and any number of mutts. But the health benefits to the chickens are really really pulling me towards the closed flock.

Thank you Sally. I do love gardening. For now, watering is all we do to keep choice plantings alive through the summer.

Yes. Closing my flock has been a good decision. Because I do not medicate or vaccinate for anything, all birds must build an immunity from the beginning. I lose a very small percentage of chickens and fewer each season to illness. I never breed from a chicken that got sick and recovered. ALL weak birds are culled. I've been strict with that from the start and can really see the results in the entire flock for vitality, fertility, and immunity. I still treat for buggy birds with wood ash. I still use deep litter in the barn and pens. I go back and forth with fermented feed because until my husband and I get back to 100%, fermenting is harder to handle. I have sixty chicks under nine weeks old and a laying flock of twenty or so. Last count there were twenty adult silkies. I want to get my numbers down to fifty total and go back to fermenting feed full time. A hundred birds is just too many for me to do that right now. But everybody gets a chance on the lawn and in the garden nearly every day. That counts a lot towards their good health. Bringing in unknown birds of unknown husbandry could potentially set me back and ruin what I have built.

 

[armorfirelady]

 
@MumsyII
  Sorry to hear about the health issues.  I know how much you liked the gardening. 

I'm in flock reduction mode over here.  But that is part of what I do.  I sell started pullets as a way to offset the cost of feed and construction of breeding pens.  I'm really really thinking hard about having a closed flock starting now.   The downfall is how it limits my started pullets to 4 pure breeds and any number of mutts.    But the health benefits to the chickens are really really pulling me towards the closed flock. 

Thank you Sally. I do love gardening. For now, watering is all we do to keep choice plantings alive through the summer.

Yes. Closing my flock has been a good decision. Because I do not medicate or vaccinate for anything, all birds must build an immunity from the beginning. I lose a very small percentage of chickens and fewer each season to illness. I never breed from a chicken that got sick and recovered. ALL weak birds are culled. I've been strict with that from the start and can really see the results in the entire flock for vitality, fertility, and immunity. I still treat for buggy birds with wood ash. I still use deep litter in the barn and pens. I go back and forth with fermented feed because until my husband and I get back to 100%, fermenting is harder to handle. I have sixty chicks under nine weeks old and a laying flock of twenty or so. Last count there were twenty adult silkies. I want to get my numbers down to fifty total and go back to fermenting feed full time. A hundred birds is just too many for me to do that right now. But everybody gets a chance on the lawn and in the garden nearly every day. That counts a lot towards their good health. Bringing in unknown birds of unknown husbandry could potentially set me back and ruin what I have built.

Sorry to hear about your health as well. Prayers being sent that you both continue to get healthy. Enjoy your gardens as you can. You've worked so hard in the past that I am sure they are enjoyable even just watering them.

Glad to hear your flock is prospering as well. While I don't have a closed flock I only get my eggs/chicks from the same person & sally8s chicks have always been very healthy. I'm sad to see the chicks go in a few weeks but it has been enjoyable watching broodies raise their chicks,